Chapter Five

"There were attacks here" —Lev pointed to a red mark on a map near a place labeled Katmai Bay— "and here." He pointed to another red mark. "Small villages. Mostly human and a few of our kind."

They were talking in the great room where the fire still burned even though all the humans and most of the vampires had retreated to their rooms during the small hours of the night. Only Lev, Brigid, and Tenzin seemed to be awake.

"Were the vampires in these villages from the Athabaskan Confederation?" Brigid asked.

Lev said, "Athabaskan."

"That's what I said." Her accent always betrayed her Irishness. The th in Athabaskan sounded like Atta-baskan.

Lev frowned, but he nodded along. "Okay, right."

Some mocked the Irish pronunciation of th —three sounded liked tree—but the Gaelic for three was trí and always had been. The Irish th lasted long after the English had nearly wiped out her native tongue under punishment of death.

The Irish persisted. Sometimes Brigid felt like she persisted just to annoy her enemies to their deaths, but it kept her going.

"So were they Athabaskan?" she asked again.

"No. Some of the humans might be Native, but most of the vampires in this area came during the Russian time, so they're not related to the Confederation." He gestured to the northern and inland parts of the map. "Confederation vampires are more inland and almost all earth vampires like me. This area attracts water and air vampires." He shrugged. "Mostly ones who want to hide but stay close enough to humans to… Well."

Hunt.

The area Lev was pointing to was along the coast, farther south and west of their location.

"It's remote and most of it is national park," Lev said. "It's only accessible from the air or the water. Tourists from the national park. Hunters and fisherman."

"Immortals love places like that," Tenzin said. "I love places like that."

Lev chuckled a little bit. "More than one vampire enjoys the humor of hunting humans who are hunting animals."

"Remote," Brigid said. "But with enough humans to keep a vampire fed."

"Exactly. It's a good area if you want to live quietly," Lev said. "Like you said, not busy but enough humans to keep you fed. Lots of wild game too."

"But too many missing people would be noticed," Tenzin said. "So you'd have to have the right sort of vampires."

Lev nodded. "Our kind in that place? Soft footprint. Enjoy the long nights, feed from the tourists, keep a low profile, and you can live very comfortably. It's all Katya's territory technically, but she can ignore it. Our kind who go there want to be anonymous. Many live on boats or in the woods near human villages."

"Even this time of year?"

"Eh…" Lev shrugged. "For a human? It's a bad idea to be isolated in the winter, but for a vampire, not too bad. There are enough islands that the big storms aren't too destructive, which is why we noticed when these villages were hit."

"By hit, you mean?—"

"Hit." Lev's voice was low and lost all its usual humor. "No vampires left. No humans either. The houses were wrecked, the ground all torn up. Once the water warms up, the bodies might start washing ashore. Or they may be gone by then."

Brigid looked at the two small dots. "How many people?"

"Not many." Lev picked up a mug of heated blood-wine. "A few vampires and a few dozen humans. Old settlements, some of them family compounds."

"Human families or vampires?" Tenzin asked.

Lev nodded. "Probably some of that and some humans our kind gathered over time. Extended families in a way."

Brigid knew exactly the type of compound Lev was describing. She'd been raised among humans who were descended from her sire. Deirdre's human family lived on even after she was turned, leaving generations of humans who knew about their immortal ancestors and were alternately protectors and the protected.

It was a symbiotic relationship that more than one immortal had used to survive for centuries without losing their humanity. The fact that someone had violated that pact offended both Brigid's human and vampire sides. It was out of order in the immortal world where humans who "belonged" to other vampires were generally left in peace.

But Zasha was known for breaking immortal norms. They seemed to delight in it.

"Why do you think Zasha was involved?" Tenzin asked. "It's unfortunate, but there are immortal grudges, greed, any number of?—"

"One of Oleg's informants spotted Zasha in Sitka," Lev said. "Deep in Katya's territory. It was some months ago, during tourist season. Then a few months later, there were reports of strange boats in the area, and then finally these two villages are destroyed."

"Destroyed is a strong word," Tenzin said.

"Destroyed how?" Brigid asked.

Lev threw some pictures down on the table. The photos showed exactly why Lev had used the word destroyed.

Houses were torn up like a giant storm had blown through. The ground was ripped as if an earthquake had hit. More than a little bit of the rubble was burned, tickling a purr of interest in Brigid's neck.

Fire was her element, but it wasn't always her friend. Just because she couldn't get high anymore didn't mean she didn't have an addictive personality, and her brain and amnis were wired for excess.

She needed fire, but she also knew it could destroy her. In the scorched earth of the destroyed villages, she saw something more than destruction.

She saw delight.

Tenzin picked up a picture. "It looks like a newborn had a tantrum. Or a lot of them had tantrums all at once."

Lev frowned. "What sire would let a newborn do something like this?"

"It's not a newborn." Brigid slowly looked through a stack of pictures. "If it was a newborn, there would be blood."

Newborn vampires weren't exactly known for delicate kills.

She tossed the photos to Tenzin. "There's no blood."

Tenzin picked up the pictures and looked through them, her head cocked at a curious angle. "I revise my previous statement. This was no newborn. There is no blood because they didn't want to waste it."

"What are you saying?" Lev asked. "This was some kind of attack, of course. Oleg suspects that Katya hired Zasha to clear out older vampire compounds who might be loyal to him."

"Katya?" Brigid blinked. "Absolutely not."

Lev shrugged. "She's no angel, and she hates that Oleg is here. On the surface, she may put up with us, but don't you think?—"

"Katya would never work with Zasha Sokholov," Brigid said. "I know her."

"Do you?" Tenzin asked.

Brigid looked at Tenzin, who only shrugged, mimicking Lev.

"I'm only saying you don't amass a territory from the Bering Sea to San Francisco Bay by being a sweet little girl," Tenzin said. "No matter what she looks like."

Brigid found it impossible to imagine, but her main purpose was finding Zasha, not getting between Oleg and Katya.

"Maybe Zasha is movin' to create their own territory," she offered. "Maybe they're challenging Oleg for dominance or trying to rebuild your sire's empire."

"Doubtful," Lev said. "Zasha had no love or loyalty for our sire, and they have never wanted power the way other vampires do. They love…"

"What?" Brigid pressed him.

Lev stared at the map. "Chaos."

"So maybe the attack was the purpose," Tenzin muttered. "Maybe they were just having fun."

"Fun?" Lev's eyes went dark. "Yes, perhaps."

Brigid sat down and stared at the map, then delved into her memories. "Both the villages were like this?"

"Yes," Lev said. "The one was on the mainland, the other on Kodiak Island."

"Near a harbor?"

"They wouldn't need a harbor." Tenzin didn't look up from the pictures.

"We can't assume they're air vampires."

"Wind damage." Tenzin kept looking through the stack of photos.

"And earth." Brigid crossed her arms. "Fire too."

Lev frowned. "The vampires who lived there were quiet. Old immortals. Powerful ones who didn't bother anyone."

"That would add to the fun from their perspective," Tenzin said. "The older ones would have provided the amusement the humans couldn't."

"But still, a vampire's gotta eat," Brigid said, "so the humans are useful too."

Lev curled his lip. "What you're saying is?—"

"Awful." Brigid kicked out her feet. "Disgusting. Abhorrent. And exactly something Zasha would do for fun."

"They've done it before," Tenzin said. "After all, Zasha learned it from your sire."

"Our sire ran human hunts, but Oleg put a stop to it when he killed him."

"And a few years back, Zasha's son was runnin', hunts in Northern California under Katya's nose," Brigid said.

"And before that, Ivan tried them down in the desert east of Los Angeles," Tenzin said. "Probably at Zasha's urging. This has always been their favorite amusement."

"Ivan made good money on the hunts," Brigid said. "Hundreds of thousands of dollars a night for the privilege of vampires letting their base instincts loose and thumbin' their nose at authority."

"So you think that is what Zasha is doing here?"

"Maybe." Brigid narrowed her eyes. "But that can't be the only reason."

"Probably not." Tenzin tossed the stack of pictures back on the table. "After all, you and I are here. Perhaps Zasha got another thing they wanted."